Yelp!

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”) “immunizes providers of interactive computer services against liability arising from content created by third parties.” Fair Hous. Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.Com, LLC, 521 F.3d 1157, 1162 (9th Cir. 2008) (en banc) (footnote omitted) (citing 47 U.S.C. § 230 (c)). This case pushes the envelope of creative pleading in an effort to work around § 230.

The complaint centers on two negative business reviews posted on Yelp’s website about Douglas Kimzey’s locksmith business. Instead of asserting that Yelp was liable in its well-known capacity as the passive host of a forum for user reviews — a claim without any hope under our precedents, such as Roommates. Com — Kimzey cryptically alleged that Yelp in effect created and developed content. Kimzey claims that Yelp is responsible for causing a review from another site to appear on its page, providing a star-rating function that transforms user reviews into Yelp’s own content, and “causing] [the statements] to appear” as a promotion on Google’s search engine. This phrasing seeks to take advantage of the fact that the CDA’s “grant of immunity applies only if the…